It is well known to provide vehicle impact energy absorbing systems, often called “crash cushions”, “crash attenuators”, or “guardrail end terminals” adjacent to roadways as well as at other locations.
It is known generally to incorporate attenuators in operative association with end terminals for guardrails wherein a flattening or reshaping structure is employed at a guardrail lead end, which upon vehicle impact is movable along the guardrail to flatten or reshape the guardrail to absorb crash energy and decelerate the vehicle. The following patent documents are believed to be representative of the current state of the art in this field: U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,928, issued May 29, 1990, U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,366, issued Jan. 7, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 8,905,382, issued Dec. 9, 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,483, issued Apr. 13, 2004, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,675, issued Jul. 7, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 7,185,882, issued Mar. 6, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 8,517,349, issued Aug. 27, 2013, U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,735, issued Apr. 6, 2004 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,694,941, issued Apr. 13, 2010.
As compared to existing vehicle crash absorbing systems which employ pre-crimped pre-fed guardrail lead ends prepositioned in and passing through a housing or “chute” of a guardrail crash absorbing device, the proposed invention requires no such feature.
When utilizing the present invention, the exiting guardrail has substantially the same configuration (profile) as the initial guardrail. Thus, it is possible to revise a good portion of the guardrail after the system has been employed.
The system does not feed the rail out of the chute directly in alignment with the downstream rail.